Trump Says Hillary’s Plans Would Play Right Into Enemies’ Hands

Donald Trump claimed in a speech to the Detroit Economic Club on Monday that a foreign power seeking to undermine America could do no better than Hillary Clinton’s economic agenda, and that she accidentally told the truth when she said she wanted to raise taxes on the middle class.

“Our opposition…has long ago run out of ideas. All Hillary Clinton has to offer is more of the same: more taxes, more regulations, more bureaucrats, more restrictions on American energy and American production,” said Trump. “She is the candidate of the past. Ours is the campaign of the future.”

He contended that the policies of the last seven-and-a-half years have resulted in the worst economic recovery since World War II. The Commerce Department reported the economy grew at a 1.2 percent rate during the second quarter of this year.

“If you were a foreign power looking to weaken America, you couldn’t do better than Hillary Clinton’s economic agenda,” Trump said drawing strong applause from the audience. “Nothing would make our foreign adversaries happier than for our country to tax and regulate our companies and our jobs out of existence.”

The GOP nominee cited Ronald Reagan as a model. The nation’s 40th president realized that one great advantage the United States had in the Cold War was having the strongest economy in the world, which could fund his “Peace through strength” military build up in the 1980s.

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Hillary Clinton responded to Trump’s remarks on Monday by deriding Reagan’s economic policies. “He wants to basically just re-package trickle down economics. Now, you know that old saying, ‘Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me?'” Clinton said. “Trickle down economics does not help our economy grow. It does not help the vast majority of Americans.”

The economy grew an entire third larger while Reagan was in office (the size of the entire West German economy), creating over 16 million new jobs, with a population of 100 million less than today. Under Pres. Obama the economy has added 15 million jobs, which Clinton cited as an impressive number at the Democratic convention.

Trump argued his economic plan offered the “biggest tax revolution since Reagan,” focusing on lowering taxes while getting rid of special interest loopholes and cutting regulations that make it difficult for American businesses to compete. He proposed three tax brackets for individuals–12, 25, and 33 percent–to replace the current seven, with a top tax bracket of 39.6 percent.

The candidate also highlighted that the United States has the highest corporate tax rate of any nation in the developed world at 35 percent.

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One of Trump’s strongest applause lines came when he said, “The one common feature of every Hillary Clinton idea is that it punishes you for working and doing business in the United States.”

“Every policy she has tilts the playing field towards other countries at our expense. That’s why she tries to distract us with tired political rhetoric that seeks to label us, divide us, and pull us apart,” he added.

Trump referenced a campaign speech, when Clinton was thought to have said that she would raise taxes on the middle class, as part of her $1.3 trillion in proposed new taxes. A later fact check found she intended to say “aren’t” going to raise taxes on this group, rather than are.

“Recently, at a campaign event, Hillary Clinton short-circuited again—to use a now famous term—when she accidentally told the truth and said she wanted to raise taxes on the middle class,” Trump said.

The Republican in contrast stated, “I am proposing an across-the-board income tax reduction, especially for middle-income Americans. This will lead to millions of new good-paying jobs. The rich will pay their fair share, but no one will pay so much that it destroys jobs, or undermines our ability to compete.”

He concluded, “We are ready to show the world that America is back—bigger, and better and stronger than ever before.”